Indiana Revival report: Day 11

On January 22, 2015, billboards started going up in Elkhart County, Indiana, proclaiming; REVIVAL IS HERE. The night before, hundreds of students from six local high schools gathered on the stage to be prayed for. The youth pastors who had brought them filled the center aisle. What was the reason for this gathering?

It had just been reported that the principals of two local high schools--one public, one private--had released their students to participate in the revival. And before the night was over, a text arrived from the board of another public school proclaiming the same thing.

One of the students on the stage was wearing a sweaty soccer uniform, because he'd skipped showering after the game in order not to miss another 10 minutes of the meeting. That morning, as soon as he'd heard that school was cancelled due to a heavy fog, he hurried in to join the dozens of groups going out to pray across the county. He'd prayed at three homes already before noon, and invited a young man at one of them to join the meetings for the rest of the day--who did. Then it was off the the soccer game and right back to the house of meeting.

We are now on the 11th straight sixteen-hour day of corporate worship, intense prayer, and scattering into the community to pray with anyone who wants it. WFRN-FM has been carrying the services every single night, and people are tuning in from 50, 60 miles away--and worldwide by internet. One woman who watched the online videos at reviveindiana.org wasn't able to get out of her house until she prayed along with a healing prayer on the video, and 24 hours later her back pain and inflammation was totally gone--so of course she was present in person at the next meeting!

This is an unusual revival in two ways: first, there are no altar calls, and very little preaching on repentance. The assumption is that the church in Elkhart County already has the Holy Spirit, and all they have to do is go out into the community and spread Him around. The focus is on first praying for whatever felt need is expressed, then, with the discernment of the Holy Spirit, leading each contact through a five-verse plan of salvation, giving them a New Testament, and making a commitment to follow up within 24 hours.

Secondly, healing is a primary result of this revival. Not a focus; no one is ever prayed for unless he requests it. But many are requesting healing, and they are getting it. And it's not happening up on stage--its happening in homes, parking lots, and sidewalks all over the community. No one claims to have a gift of healing, but when they pray, they're seeing people healed--often to their own amazement. And it's not just physical healing; bondages are being shattered.

Hundreds of people are testifying that the Holy Spirit is moving in and through them. Doors are opening. Walls are coming down. More and more churches, having had their premises visited by prayer teams the first week, are coming on board. The overflow room has overflowed. Last night, simultaneous Spanish translation was offered for the first time.  At the rate things are going, there soon won't be a building in Elkhart County big enough to hold the crowds--they may just have to move to the arena at the County Fairgrounds, which never hosts an outdoor crowd this time of year.

This has the makings of the first nationwide revival in over 100 years. And there are still over 40 days to go.

Tomorrow I'll write about the building that's about to be outgrown.